Nadia Blagorodnova

of behalf of the BlackGEM team:

PI: Paul GrootProject Manager: Steven BloemenProject Scientist: PeterJonkerOperations Manager: Paul Vreeswijk

BlackGEM BlackGEM

Science:● Gravitational wave counterparts● Southern All Sky Survey● Fast Transients & Variables● Nearby Universe Survey

Phase 1: ● 3 wide field telescopes (8.1 square degr. total)● Primary mirror: 65cm diameter ● Sensitivity: g=23 in 5 minutes● Location: ESO La Silla● Optical quality: seeing limited, 0.9” median● Camera: 1 CCD/telescope, 10k x 10k, 0.56”/pixel● Filters: u,g,q,r,i,z filter set, change in 3s

Phase 2: ● Expansion to 15 telescopes● 40 square degrees total field of view (@ 0.56”/pix) ● Location: ESO La Silla; or combi ESO, NZ and SA

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BlackGEM SurveysBlackGEM SurveysBlackGEM Southern Sky Survey: 'Southern Sloan'

→ 30 000 sqd down to 22nd mag in u,g,q,r,i,z at 1” median seeing→ By itself a fantastic resource for all kinds of science:

(galactic streams/structure, dwarf galaxies, stellar populations, 'gems',

quasars, weak lensing, high-z galaxies, etc.)

→ Includes a 1-minute integration q-band scan of available Southern Sky (10000 sqd) every two weeks, down to q~21.5

● BlackGEM Fast Synoptic Survey: 'Kepler on steroids' → High cadence (1 min), multi-colour (simultaneous), wide-field→ Kepler Short Cadence-type sampling on millions of objects→ Deep drilling fields: thousands of exposures over weeks time-scale→ Flexibility for experiments: continuous read-out, six filters, etc. (fast transients, asteroids, KBOs, early SN, interacting binaries, eclipses etc.)

● BlackGEM Twilight Program→ Every twilight (30 minutes) Local Universe galaxies in 3 bands (u,q,z) for new transients (incl. SMC/LMC, Fornax Cluster, Cen A/M83 group, etc.). Fifteen fields (120sqd) per twilight.

● BlackGEM Trigger Mode: ' Transients Galore' → GW error box coverage in multiple colours→ 100s of sqd in multiple times over ~week time scale down to g=23 (TDEs, SN of all types, Dwarf Novae, SN .Ia, SN Iax, etc. )

KU LeuvenNOVA = Amsterdam, Leiden, Groningen, Radboud

BlackGEM Team & ConsortiumBlackGEM Team & Consortium

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Principal Investigator: Paul Groot (Radboud University)

Project Scientist: Peter Jonker (SRON/Radboud University

Project Manager: Steven Bloemen (Radboud University)

Consortium Institute Partners in Phase 1:

Manchester U., Tel Aviv U., U Canterbury, UC Davis, Weizmann, Hebrew U,

Northwestern committed at PI-level

Possibility for new partners (for 5 year operation): ● 150 kEuro to join at PI-level (one faculty member + PDRAs/PhDs)

(all data, science team, lead science case)● 1 MEuro to join at Institute level (full institute)

(all data, science team, lead science case, consortium board)

→ Combinations with in-kind contributions (e.g. follow-up telescope time) possible

www.blackgem.org ; @BlackGEM_Array

Location

BlackGEM Unit telescopeBlackGEM Unit telescope● Wynn-Harmer design incl. M2 on tip-tilt piezo stage● 110 Mpix camera (1 STA 1600 chip)● 2.7 square degree field-of-view● 10 second readout + filter change + repointing● Carbon-fibre structure● Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector in triplet lens barrel● Fornax 200 mount● Fully robotic● Cooled electronics, in counterweight

64xAirborne Composites

Tip-tiltM2

Triplet lens& ADC

M1

Design

Finished Prototype

CCD & FiltersCCD & Filters● STA1600, 10.5k x 10.5k CCD, 9 μ pixel : 110 Mpixel chip ● Scale on sky: 0.562”/pix, total field of view: 2.7 sqd/telescope● Readout time: 7 seconds (at 1 MHz on 16 ports), RON: 5.5 e-

Filters:Sloan u,g,r,i,z filters plus broad-band q (440-720nm)

Guide cameras & FiltersGuide cameras & Filters

3 Guide cameras

Filter wheel

Filter performanceFilter performance

u g q

r i z

Reflection on backingstructure CCD

All exposures 5 seconds, unguided, on Pole

• Inaugurated on 25 May 2018 in South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

• Strongly linked to the ThunderKAT and TRAPUM MeerKAT (inaugurated on 18 July 2018) Large Survey Projects.

• Simultaneous radio and optical multi-band observations

• Short time-scale radio-optical correlations in astrophysical transients: dwarf novae, novae, X-ray binaries, pulsars, fast radio bursts, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, AGN, gravitational wave events and sources yet unknown.

• MeerLICHT hardware and software is used as a prototype for BlackGEM.

Polaris

Pole

1.65o

1.65o

First light on sky

MeerLICHT image of LMC

Pipelines and calibration

• Data reduction software: BlackBOX: optimal image subtraction (Zackay, Ofek & Gal-Yam 2016) for the detection of transients

• Photometric calibration based on stellar template fitting of a combination of Gaia DR2/SDSS/PS1/SkyMapper/GALEX NUV and 2MASS J-band photometry

• Catalog with tens of millions of sources• 100 - 1000 stars per field in the BlackGEM photometric system• Ready to calibrate any image

Timeline• Prototype testing @Radboud — February 2017

• Shipment MeerLICHT prototype → ZA — June 2017

• Commissioning MeerLICHT @SAAO — August-December 2017

• Inauguration MeerLICHT — May 2018

• Final Design Review BlackGEM — March, 2017

• Manufacturing BlackGEM-Phase1 2017 – 2018

• Testing BlackGEM telescopes in Groningen — 2018

• Shipment BlackGEM → Chile — Early 2019

• Commissioning BlackGEM-Phase1 — March 2019

• Start operations Phase1 — April 2019

now

Future plansFuture plans

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● Expansion of BlackGEM to 15 telescopes (requires additional 15 MEuro)

● Chile, or NZ and/or Southern Africa

● Development/addition of low-cost spectroscopic telescopes

Mt. John

U. of Canterbury

Christchurch

South Africa or Namibia